Rapid Transit in China

The Beijing metro system, which opened in 1969, has 113 kilometers of subway
track on four lines, plus an additional 98 kilometers slated by 2010. The Guangzhou
system, which opened in 1999, has 18.5 kilometers and an additional 133 kilometers
planned.

Shanghai metro, which opened in 1995, has 8 lines, 68 stations, and 82.8 kilometers
of track, with an additional 108.4 kilometers under construction or planned.
The Tianjin metro was begun in 1970 as a planned network of 153.9 kilometers
on seven lines; large sections remain closed for reconstruction, but one 26.2-kilometer-long
line opened for trial operations in June 2006. The Shenzhen metro opened in
2004, initially with two lines, 19 stations, and 21.8 kilometers of track. Also
under construction are subway and light rail systems in Chongqing and Nanjing,
and systems are planned for Chengdu and Qingdao. Metro transit in Hong Kong
is covered by the privately operated Mass Transit Railway, which opened in 1979
and now has six metro lines with 50 stations.

China also has the world’s first commercial magnetic levitation (maglev)
train service. A Sino-
German joint venture, 38-kilometer-long route between downtown Shanghai and
the Pudong
airport opened in 2003. The project cost US$1.2 billion and has experienced
an average of 8,000
passengers per day, well below capacity. In 2004 the first Chinese-made maglev
train made its
debut in Dalian, a major port city in Northeast China’s Liaoning Province.
The 10.3-meter-long
train has a top speed of just under 110 kilometers per hour. Although the cost
to build was high
at US$6 million per kilometer, China’s outlay was still only one-sixth
of the world average.